In preparation for the Usability Week conference, I checked into The Omni Shoreham Hotel the day before. To my pleasant surprise, Saturday was the same day as the Cherry Blossom Festival. It was a very windy day, it was late in the afternoon, and there were hundreds of thousands of people in town to enjoy the cherry blossoms. All of these factors did not lend themselves to a peaceful photo session down along the Tidal Basin. But, it was the last of the 4 day peak bloom period of the trees, so I decided to take the Metro down to the Smithsonian and walk along the Tidal Basin.

When I got off the Metro, I had to fight the tens of thousands of people trying to get back down into the subway. Once I got through the crowd, and made my way past the Smithsonian and the Washington Monument, I finally reached the Tidal Basin. The walkway along the tidal basin was absolutely packed with people. It reminded me of the WaterFire Festival I attended last October in Providence, Rhode Island, except there were more people here in Washington D.C.

I spent two to three hours walking along the basin, and took a lot of photos. I posted them on my Flickr account, and you can see my cherry blossom photos there.

Amit had recommended that I eat at Tono Sushi on Connecticut Avenue. It is only a block away from the Omni Hotel, so I decided to give it a try. The food was excellent, and the seafood was very fresh. I particularly enjoyed the Baked Salmon Roll, which was something new that I tried.